"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

A former staffer from Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for president
alleges that the campaign pays women staffers less than men as a matter
of course and that sexism is rampant among the former reality TV star’s
campaign staff.According to the New York Times,
former staffer Elizabeth Mae Davidson, 26, filed a complaint with the
Davenport, Iowa Civil Rights Commission alleging that men working for
the campaign were paid more than women doing the same jobs and that male
campaign staffers were allowed to plan and speak at rallies while women
were expected to keep quiet and follow orders.Furthermore, Davidson said, when Trump was confronted with herself
and another female campaign volunteer at a rally last summer, the
billionaire mogul said, “You guys could do a lot of damage,” in apparent
reference to their looks. When the Times asked Trump if he’d made the apparently
sexist remark, he replied, “That is not the worst thing that could be
said. But I never said it. It’s not in my vocabulary.”Davidson filed the complaint on Tuesday in Davenport, Iowa’s third
largest city. Until she was fired, she worked as the campaign’s field
organizer.Trump’s campaign claims Davidson was fired for performance-related issues.“My people tell me she did a terrible job,” he told the Times.The billionaire real-estate mogul then lashed out at the Times for running the story a day ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses, saying the newspaper’s reporting “could damage my chances.”Davidson alleges that she was fired for making disparaging remarks
about high-ranking campaign staff and breaking the nondisclosure
agreement she signed as a condition of her employment with Trump 2016. Her termination came a day after the Jan. 14 publication of a New York Times article that accused the Trump campaign of being “amateurish and halting, committing basic organizing errors.”Davidson explained in an interview that she made $2,000 per month as a
part-time worker for the campaign. Men with similar positions and
levels of authority were paid $3,500 to $4,000 per month, she said.“As a result of this discrimination I have suffered lost wages,
mental anguish and damage to my career,” Davidson said in her complaint.
Her lawyer, Dorothy A. O’Brien, told the Times that the complaint
would trigger an automatic investigation by the Davenport civil rights
agency. After 60 days, Davidson has the option of allowing the agency to
continue its investigation or filing suit in state court. When asked if she would be attending Monday’s caucuses for Trump,
Davidson said, “Some of the bad things about him I dismissed, because I
was working for the candidate. Now, I’m more critical, especially how he
treats women.”

Monday, January 25, 2016

A 54-year-old Oregon man allegedly planning to join the militant
group occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge can be seen threatening to
kill sheriff’s deputies in footage posted on Monday by KATU-TV.Body camera footage shows Joseph Arthur Stetson telling a Harney
County deputy, “I’m planning to go out there and protect the Bundys, be
their personal guard. If anybody wants to kill them, they have to kill
me first.” The encounter on Monday was filmed at a local market after deputies
responded to a report of an armed man on the premises. Stetson was
reportedly carrying a pellet gun. “What concerns me right now, as I’m talking to you, I can smell some
alcohol on your breath,” the deputy tells Stetson. Stetson responds by
saying that he drank some NyQuil earlier in the day, then refuses to
take a field sobriety test. “I was a colonel in the United States armed forces,” he says. “Green Beret.” He then reaches into his pocket, only for the deputy to stop him by
grabbing his arm before telling him, “You’re making me a little bit
nervous right now” and motioning for a colleague to assist in
handcuffing Stetson.As he’s being handcuffed, Stetson says, “I will kill all of you.
Don’t believe me? If I go to jail, when I come out, I’ll kill you.” As the arrest continues, Stetson can be heard speaking more angrily,
saying, “I’m a Green Beret colonel, you damn sons of bitches. Freaking
Nazi Germany, that’s all you are. I can’t be killed anyway.”He then yells at a nearby state trooper that he is being subjected to
an “illegal arrest” and vowing not to harm state troopers, unlike the
deputies.“I am the last hope,” Stetson yells. “I am a freakin’ colonel, Green Beret. My record is sealed by Ronald Reagan.”.....................

Update: In a reversal from claims made on the campaign trail, Ted Cruz's
presidential campaign is now saying the senator and his family do have
health insurance and never lost coverage. The late night Friday
revelation came more than 24 hours after Cruz had told a New Hampshire
audience that he and his family were without health insurance and were
scrambling to obtain new coverage--and used the claim to slam Obamacare
for the mess he was in.In statements to Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal,
campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier blamed Cruz's false assertion
that his family had lost their health insurance on a misunderstanding.
She said an insurance broker told Cruz that BlueCross BlueShield of
Texas was dropping his PPO plan, but Frazier said that the broker did
not tell Cruz his family was automatically being transferred to the
carrier's HMO plan."Based on this information, Sen. Cruz believed the family was
uninsured and asked the broker to pull quotes immediately for a new
policy," Frazier said.Thursday, the senator had said he "got a notice in the mail" that
"Blue Cross Blue Shield was leaving the market." When TPM had asked BCBS
of Texas when and how had it notified members about changes to their
coverage, an official pointed to an announcement in July that explained that the insurer was dropping its PPOs but its HMO plans would be available for consumers."We worked with the members and their providers to minimize the
impact of this change to their ongoing care, particularly if they needed
to transfer their care to other providers," BCBS-Texas spokeswoman Edna
Pérez-Vega told TPM via email.Thursday Cruz had also claimed that his search for new insurance was complicated because his "premiums are going up 50 percent."This allegation came as premiums on average in Texas went up only 4
percent in 2016, and the single biggest premium jump came from a tiny
carrier that is raising premiums by 34 percent.In explaining this claim by Cruz, Frazier said his family has opted
to switch over to a new carrier starting in March with a plan more
generous than the HMO that is currently covering him."The new premium—for coverage similar to what the Cruz family had last year—is roughly 50 percent higher," Frazier said.Finally, the statement said that his former BlueCross BlueShield PPO
plan had been purchased "with no government funds." Aside from the
subsidies offered to users of the Obamacare exchange, the senator is
eligible for insurance subsidized by his government employer, but has
turned the option down.That coverage must be purchased through the Washington, D.C. exchange
-- due to a Republican amendment in the Affordable Care Act requiring
Congress members and their staff to use the Obamacare marketplace. But
it comes with an employer subsidy that covers about three-quarters of
monthly premiums.

Original story:Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) revealed
Thursday that he and his family -- including his two young daughters --
are not currently covered by health insurance. His reason? The 2016
presidential candidate told his audience at a New Hampshire campaign
stop that his provider, BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, had dropped all
of its individual policies and he was finding an alternative because
"our premiums are going up 50 percent.""That’s happening all over the country. That’s happening in New Hampshire," he said.However, a number of details of his account do not line up with what health care experts told TPM.For one, BCBS-Texas did not drop all of its individual plans, but rather just its PPO
plans --a type of health insurance that tends to be more expensive but
also more flexible, because it allows consumers to visit a variety of
caregivers without first receiving a referral. The insurer continued to
offer its HMO plans and said it dropped its PPO plans in order to keep
the other plans affordable."Last year we informed members that we would no longer offer PPO's to
individual policy holders, but would work to transition them to other
available insurance plans for individuals so they would not experience a
gap in coverage," said BCBS-Texas spokeswoman Edna Pérez-Vega, via
email to TPM. "Those who have been transitioned also have the option of
choosing different plans for 2016. We worked with the members and their
providers to minimize the impact of this change to their ongoing care,
particularly if they needed to transfer their care to other providers."BCBS-Texas announced it was dropping the PPOs
in July, meaning Cruz had months to find a plan before his coverage
lapsed Dec. 31. (The open enrollment deadline for coverage kicking in on
Jan. 1 was December 17).In his remarks Thursday, Cruz suggested that his wife Heidi was
frustrated that he had yet not found a replacement plan, though he has
until the end of the month enroll in coverage that begins in March."By the way, when you let your health insurance policy lapse, your wife gets really ticked at you," he said, according to Politico. "It’s not a good — I’ve had, shall we say, some intense conversations with Heidi on that."Was his own negligence to blame?As to Cruz's assertion that his premiums had spiked by 50 percent,
according the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, on
average, premiums in Texas increased by only 4 percent. (In New
Hampshire, contrary to Cruz's claim, premiums went up by 5 percent on
average, according to the HHS.)Furthermore, as Los Angeles Times columnist Michael A. Hiltzik pointed out, the premiums of some plans in Texas decreased, as tracked by Healthcare.gov and that none of them increased by 50 percent.Cruz and his family were previously covered under a blue chip
employer plan offered by Goldman Sachs, where his wife Heidi worked
before going on unpaid leave in March to help with the campaign.As a U.S. senator, Cruz also has the option to get coverage through
the Washington, D.C.-exchange, where he would also be eligible for a
subsidy up to 75 percent from his government employer, as Hiltzik also noted."Cruz is still eligible for the government’s employer subsidy of up
to 75% of his health insurance premium," Hiltzik wrote. "He has said he
wouldn’t accept the employer share, which makes his complaint about his
cost of insurance just a teeny bit more dishonest because he’s the one
driving up his own premium."The Cruz campaign did not respond to requests from TPM to clarify his comments.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Errors by three airmen troubleshooting a nuclear missile in its launch
silo in 2014 triggered a "mishap" that damaged the missile, prompting
the Air Force to strip the airmen of their nuclear certification and
quietly launch an accident investigation, officials said Friday.

In a statement released to The Associated Press, the Air Force declined
to provide key additional details or a copy of the report produced last
November by the Accident Investigation Board, saying the information was
classified and too sensitive to be made public.

Under the Air Force's own regulations, Accident Investigation Board
reports are supposed to be made public. The Air Force did release a
brief summary to the AP after it repeatedly sought answers for more than
a year. The summary said the full report was classified on Nov. 9,
2015, by Gen. Robin Rand, who took over as commander of Air Force Global
Strike Command in July 2015.

The Air Force said the accident caused no injuries and posed no risk to
public safety. It said top Pentagon officials were briefed on the
results of the investigation in December, as were members of Congress.

The damaged missile was removed from its underground silo, which is
designated Juliet-07 and situated among wheat fields and wind turbines
about nine miles west of Peetz, Colorado. The silo, one of 10 in a
cluster, or flight, that straddles the Colorado-Nebraska border, is
controlled by launch officers of the 320th Missile Squadron and
administered by the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.

The accident follows a period of turmoil inside the nuclear missile
corps that the AP revealed in a series of articles and amid an emerging
national debate about the costs and benefits of investing hundreds of
billions of dollars to modernize the entire strategic nuclear force at a
time when war craft is changing.

The Minuteman 3 is the only land-based intercontinental ballistic
missile in the nuclear force. First deployed in 1970, it long ago
exceeded its planned service life, and the Air Force is developing plans
for a replacement.

The Air Force's brief summary of the Juliet-07 mishap said the Minuteman
3 missile "became non-operational" during a diagnostic test on the
evening of May 16, 2014. The next morning a "mishap crew" chief, who was
not identified, "did not correctly adhere to technical guidance" during
troubleshooting efforts, "subsequently damaging the missile." No
further details about the damage or errors were revealed.

The investigation report summary said the actual cause of the accident,
established by "clear and convincing evidence," is classified. It said
there were four contributing factors to the accident, of which it
identified two. One was the mishap chief's failure to follow technical
guidance. The other was that the mishap chief "lacked the necessary
proficiency level" to anticipate the consequences of his actions during
the troubleshooting.

In seeming contradiction of that second point, the Air Force said in its
separate statement to the AP that the mishap team chief was properly
trained for the task he was performing. It said he and two other airmen
on his team were immediately stripped of their certification to work
with nuclear weapons. They remained decertified for "over a year," until
they were retrained and returned to nuclear duty.

Lt. Col. John Sheets, spokesman for Air Force Global Strike Command,
said it is possible that some or all of the three could still face
disciplinary action.

To prevent a recurrence of their mistake and the accident it caused, the
Air Force said it has "strengthened" technical guidance, modified
training curriculum and shared information about the conditions that led
to the mishap with other units that operate Minuteman 3 missiles.

Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein was commander of the ICBM force at the time of
the incident. The AP requested an interview with him but the Air Force
declined to make him available. Weinstein is now the top staff officer
on nuclear matters at Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon.

When the AP inquired about the accident in December 2014, Sheets said no
details could be released until after the accident investigation board
had completed its work and presented its findings to the commander of
Global Strike Command. He assured the AP that the investigation report
would be made public, although when the AP filed a request for it in
March 2015 under the Freedom of Information Act, the Air Force denied
the request, saying the information was "exempt from mandatory
disclosure" and would be withheld from release because it consisted of
"advice, opinions, evaluations or recommendations."

Sheets later said the report was not yet complete but would be made
public as required under Air Force regulations. He subsequently amended
that, saying senior officials had decided the information was too
sensitive to release.

The Air Force's own legal office says the purpose of an accident
investigation is to provide a publicly releasable report of the facts
and the circumstances of the accident. An Air Force order dated April
14, 2015, is explicit about this.

"An accident investigation conducts a legal investigation to inquire
into all the facts and circumstances surrounding Air Force aerospace and
ground accidents to prepare a publicly releasable report" and to obtain
evidence for use in litigation and disciplinary action.

At times the Air Force has been slow to acknowledge its nuclear missteps. In 2014 then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
expressed worry that personnel failures were squandering public trust
in the nuclear force. He ordered an independent review, which was
underway at the time of the Juliet-07 accident. The review team was not
told of it, however, because "the accident was going through the
investigative process" at the time, the Air Force told the AP.

The most recent previous Air Force investigation of an accident at an
ICBM launch silo was in 2008. That investigation, which was publicly
released, found that a fire in a launcher equipment room went undetected
for five days. It uncovered the remarkable fact that the Air Force was
using duct tape on cables linked to the missile.

The fire was caused by a loose electrical connection on a battery
charger that was activated when a storm knocked out the main power
source. The fire ignited a shotgun storage case, incinerated shotgun
shells, ignited and melted duct tape at the opening of the launch tube,
charred an umbilical cable in several places, and burned through wires
in a pressure monitoring cable.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

The White House responded Thursday to former Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin's (R) assertion that her son's domestic violence arrest was
connected to his combat service in Iraq, and by extension to the Obama
administration's treatment of veterans.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that he would not be making light of Palin's comments."The reaction of some people I think is to make light of some of the
rhetoric that we see on the campaign trail, particularly from Gov.
Palin," Earnest said at Thursday's press briefing. "But the fact is
domestic violence is not a joke. Gun violence is not a joke. Problems
with addiction are not a joke. The consequences, or I should say, the
sacrifices that many of our men and women in uniform make for our safety
and security are not a joke."Palin's son Track was arrested Monday
on suspicion of domestic violence against his girlfriend, among other
charges. He allegedly punched her in the eye and threatened to shoot
himself, according to a police report.Palin suggested Wednesday at a rally in support of Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump that Track's behavior stemmed from
his combat service.Earnest said the Obama administration takes the health concerns of military service members very seriously."We take them all very seriously and there are many communities and
families that are dealing with these very difficult challenges in a way
that is sometimes difficult to talk about publicly," he said.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Lee and Ernie Perez knew something was amiss when their three cats started throwing up after drinking water.In 2014, the longtime residents of Flint, Michigan, were dealing with
the same circumstances that had consumed most of the town. The problems
began in April that year, after the city switched its water source and
started pulling water from a local river as a cost-saving measure.
Almost immediately, residents levied complaints about the smelly,
discolored and disgusting fluid that was now flowing into their
households.So the Perezes shut off their taps. They started purchasing bottled
water – to cook, drink and bathe. Their three cats, along with a feral
feline who lived outside, switched over, too.“They all get bottled water,” Lee Perez said.More than a year later, the Rust Belt city of 100,000 is still
reeling from the effects of a water supply that was found last fall to
have been poisoned with extremely high levels of lead. Just this week,
officials reported that they witnessed a spike in Legionnaires’ disease –
a severe form of pneumonia – after Flint began using the water from the
Flint river that proved problematic. While causation is still unknown,
scientists studying the water problem predicted a spike in the disease.And the evidence is mounting that federal, state and local officials ignored or neglected indicators of a growing water crisis.As early as October 2014, there were problematic signs. A local
General Motors engine plant stopped using water from the Flint river
because parts were becoming rusted , but officials nevertheless continued to reassure residents the water was safe to drink – a decision deemed “unconscionable” by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton this week.Tests also revealed elevated levels of chemical compounds in the
water supply that can lead to liver or kidney issues. Nonetheless,
officials downplayed residents’ concerns, saying – confidently – that the water was safe to drink.In February, results from independent studies began to trickle out.
One from a coalition that included residents, Virginia Tech researchers,
and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan showed the highly
corrosive Flint river was leaching lead off water pipes before flowing
into households across the city of 100,000; another, from a local
pediatrician, showed an increase in Flint children with elevated levels
of lead.Officials vehemently disputed the research until, in October,
governor Rick Snyder admitted the situation was far graver than he
initially understood and announced a $12m plan to transfer Flint back to its previous supply with the city of Detroit.Snyder also appointed a task force to investigate what caused the crisis. Last month, the group released a scathing report that placed blame chiefly
on the state’s environmental department – from failing to properly
treat the Flint river to officials belittling responses to public
outcry. The federal government is also investigating what happened .In the meantime, residents are left trying to cope with the gravity of a manmade public health debacle. And they want answers.“Well, he should’ve done it a long time ago,” resident Barbara Cowan
said of Snyder’s response, while she was picking up a case of water on
Thursday that is now being distributed by the National Guard and the Red
Cross.“He ignored it,” she continued. “He’s [chosen] to ignore it, because he didn’t live in Flint.”

‘Completely unacceptable’

On Thursday, the Perezes joined a seemingly never-ending stream of
residents that flowed into the city’s no. 5 firehouse, where Red Cross
volunteers have been handing out cases of bottled water to anyone in
need. The water resource center, one of five currently operating in the
city, has been busy: The previous day, Red Cross personnel at the site
handed out nearly 700 cases of water, said volunteer Peggy Zuehlk.But even with clean water to drink, the Perezes still had additional concerns.The cats don’t vomit anymore, but the couple says they still don’t
feel comfortable showering in whatever’s coming through their pipes.“The itch, it’s just unbelievable,” Ernie Perez, 73, said of the
effect the water has on his body. “It’s not an itch like you got a
little mosquito bite or something.”Lee jumped in: “It’s like a hot prickling needle that’s all over your
body. And as seniors, we can’t take that.” Adding to their exasperation
is the hefty price for unusable tap water in Flint, which has some of the highest water rates in the country .“We flush our toilet,” said Lee Perez, “and we pay $109 a month.”Snyder ordered the National Guard on Tuesday to assist
the state at the water resource sites established across Flint, where
residents say they are still struggling to grapple with the reality that
lead-contaminated water flowed into their households for months.The state has also requested additional assistance from the White
House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Late Thursday, Snyder
asked Barack Obama to declare the area surrounding Flint in a state of
emergency to expedite the response to the growing water contamination
problem.Low exposure to lead, a powerful neurotoxin, can produce long-term
health effects, particularly in young children in the form of behavioral
problems or lower IQ. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
says there is no safe level of lead exposure.What’s now known is that state environmental officials improperly
applied federal regulations to ensure water is treated properly. The
governor-appointed task force said the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality (MDEQ) department bears “primary responsibility
for what happened in Flint”.That task force found that water from the corrosive Flint river
leached lead off household pipes and flowed into the system because
Flint hadn’t been required by the state environmental body to use
corrosion control to treat the water. The report also found that the
tone and substance of the state environmental division’s public
statements were “completely unacceptable”, the report said.“It’s unconscionable what happened here,” Virginia Tech researcher
Marc Edwards, who helped lead a team that tested water samples of nearly
300 homes in the city, told
the Guardian last fall of the state’s decision to not require Flint to
use corrosion control to treat the river. Edwards also “predicted, based
on our prior research there would be higher levels of Legionella, due
to the lack of corrosion control”.Between June 2014 and November 2015, there were 87 cases in Genesee
County, where Flint is located, of which 10 resulted in death, according
to the state, although it is not yet known whether the disease is
linked to the water.In early July, in response to the release of an internal
Environmental Protection Agency memo raising concerns about Flint’s
water source, state officials downplayed concerns.“Let me start here – anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax,” spokesman Brad Wurfel said at the time. Later that month, Snyder’s then-chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore,
wrote an email saying Flint residents aren’t “getting the benefit of the
doubt” over water issues.“Now they are concerned and rightfully so about the lead level
studies they are receiving from (MDEQ) samples,” Muchmore said in the
email obtained by Edwards. “These folks are scared and worried about the
health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a
state we’re just not sympathizing with their plight).”Officials responded to Muchmore by saying there’s nothing to worry about in Flint. Snyder’s spokespeople have said Muchmore’s remarks reflect how the governor’s administration was engaged with the community.But MDEQ should have had a more accurate assessment of the situation,
according to the auditor general’s report released in December. The
report noted that MDEQ officials were aware in March 2015 that Flint’s
lead water levels were already above enforcement action thresholds set
by the EPA.Observers have also pointed their finger at the EPA for its handling of the situation.Henry Henderson, midwest director of the Natural Resources Defense
Council, said the EPA has authority under the federal Safe Drinking
Water Act to take emergency actions in crises like in Flint.“It’s become painfully obvious that every level of government,
including but not limited to the EPA … haven’t felt no urgency about
this matter at all,” Henderson said, “have been shockingly
lackadaisical, [and] have made inappropriate statements in public in
terms of the safety of the situation, which is wildly unsafe.”

I think it’d be safe to say there was a cover-up Larry Ross

The EPA’s regional administrator told
the Detroit News this week that federal officials chose to implore the
MDEQ to respond to the situation, rather than take action itself,
despite knowing for months that Flint wasn’t properly using corrosion
control to treat its water.Henderson said the administrator, Susan Hedman, could be
“disingenuous or just remarkably ignorant about her responsibilities and
her power to affect those responsibilities”. Federal law authorizes EPA
administrators to take action to deal with issues like the Flint water
crisis, he said.In an email obtained by the Guardian, dated 20 August, from EPA
program manager Jennifer Crooks to three MDEQ officials, she asked for a
copy of a letter sent to Flint notifying the city of high lead levels.“Flint has sure gotten a lot of attention over the past year; I’m
going to stay positive,” Crooks wrote. “And say that I hope this all
dies down once they connect to the Karegnondi pipeline (in 2016).”

A quest for cheaper water

The water problems stemmed from a decision to use the Flint river as a
more affordable water supply. The policy was aimed at easing the
financial uncertainty looming over the city, where more than 40% of the
predominantly black population lives below the poverty line. Flint has
been throttled for decades by a depleted tax base as manufacturing jobs
moved elsewhere – a problem compounded by a subsequent spike in violence
that has routinely placed the community high on the list of violent US
cities.But it is the city’s lead-tainted water disaster that has left
residents and activists asking questions about how this could have
happened.The governor’s office declined to answer questions about what role it
played in the decision-making process that led to Flint using the local
river as its main water source, but what is clear is that the
lead-contamination crisis took place while the city was under the
control of Snyder-appointed emergency managers.In late 2011, as Flint’s finances continued to worsen, Snyder
appointed an emergency financial manager with vast powers to oversee the
city’s finances – and effectively rendered local elected officials
powerless. In the intervening months, state and city officials began
discussing the most affordable water option for Flint.By March 2013, it was decided Flint would join a new water system and
leave Detroit, with the hope of obtaining more affordable rates for
residents. Though Flint was still under the control of an emergency
manager, that month city council members overwhelmingly approved a
resolution to join a new regional water system in 2016.But there was a problem: the Detroit water system, realizing Flint
was set to leave, increased the city’s rates and gave it a one-year
notice to renegotiate a short-term contract until 2016, or find a
different water supply. Without Detroit, Flint would need a temporary
water source until the new regional system came online.As late as February 2014, the option for Flint to use Detroit’s
system in the interim was still on the table. The following month,
however, then-Flint emergency manager, Darnell Earley, wrote a letter to
Detroit water officials – obtained by the American Civil Liberties
Union of Michigan, which broke the story of Flint’s lead water crisis –
saying he expects “that the Flint Water Treatment Plant will be fully
operational and capable of treating Flint River.”“In that case, there will be no need for Flint to continue purchasing
water to serve its residents and businesses after April 17, 2014,”
wrote Earley, who’s now the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Tracklist: 01. I Robot 00:00 02. I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 06:09 03. Some Other Time 09:32 04. Breakdown 13:36 05. Don't Let It Show 17:29 06. The Voice 21:50 07. Nucleus 27:12 08. Day After Day (The Show Must Go On) 30:45 09. Total Eclipse 34:31 10. Genesis Ch.1, V.32 37:42

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

An Oregon judge says he will bill Ammon Bundy up to $70,000 a day to
reimburse Harney County for security costs related to the ongoing
occupation of a wildlife refuge.Local schools reopened Monday for the first time since Bundy and
other militants seized a visitors center Jan. 2 at the Malheur National
Wildlife Preserve and demanded the transfer of federally owned land to
the county, reported KTVZ-TV.Bundy and other militants used a backhoe owned by the U.S. Department
of Fish and Wildlife to remove fences separating federal land from
property owned by a local rancher.Bundy said the militants had rifled through files at the occupied
building looking for evidence of wrongdoing, but he insisted they had
not accessed computers — although public radio reporters witnessed them
doing that.WATCH: Teen chokes up at town meeting asking Bundy to leave, says ‘I shouldn’t have to be scared in my own hometown’Some of the Fish and Wildlife employees have been relocated
from their homes “out of an abundance of caution” in case their
personal information, including home addresses, had been accessed by the
militants.They have also changed a sign outside the wildlife refuge to identify
the occupied building as the “Harney County Resource Center,” although
it’s not clear how the notoriously cash-strapped militants paid for the
new sign.Sheriff David Ward, who has said he agrees with the militants’ views
but not their tactics, has set up concrete barriers and other security
measures around his office and the courthouse after the militants or
their supporters threatened him and other county officials.Ward issued a statement Monday vowing that he and other law
enforcement officials “will not be intimidated,” and he repeated his
call for the out-of-state militants to leave the area.“There’s an hourglass, and it’s running out,” Ward said as cheers erupted at a public meeting Monday night. “Go home.”Harney County Judge Steve Grasty also spoke at the meeting, where he
said the occupation had cost taxpayers an estimated $60,000 to $70,000
each day it has dragged on.“We’re going to send Mr. Bundy the bill,” said Grasty, who criticized Republican lawmakers for meeting with the militants over the weekend.The judge also called on residents not to offer assistance to the
roughly two-dozen militants, who have been joined in recent days by
out-of-state militia groups.“No matter how you feel, do not bring food and supplies up to the refuge,” Grasty said.The militants have been widely mocked for first calling for snacks,
and then issuing a wish list of items such as flavored coffee creamer,
tampons and cigarettes.They have apparently received some unwanted gifts, such as sex toys,
as seen in a Facebook video posted by Jon Ritzheimer, an Arizona veteran
who is taking part in the occupation.“It was really mind-blowing to me that people would actually spend
their money (on this),” Ritzheimer said. “This box right here, $17.90
(for shipping). They spend and waste their money on all this hateful
stuff to send out here to us and buy this ridiculous stuff. This one was
really funny — a ‘bag of dicks.’ Rather than going out and doing good,
they just spend all their money on hate and hate.”He then angrily shoved all the unwanted gifts off a table and onto the floor.Ritzheimer urged fellow “patriots” to join them in Oregon for “history in the making,” and he offered a message to his family.“Please look at this as a deployment, only this time I’m actually
serving my country rather than being sent over seas to line the pockets
of corrupt politicians,” he said. “It is our sacrifice as a family that
will make this country great again, not some election.”

The Washington Post published an op-ed Tuesday
by a constitutional law professor who asserts that due to his Canadian
birth, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is not a natural born American citizen and
thus is ineligible under the Constitution to be president."Let me be clear: I am not a so-called birther. I am a legal
historian," Mary Brigid McManamon -- a constitutional law professor at
Widener University’s Delaware Law School -- wrote.

She joins Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe
in raising concerns that Cruz may not meet the "natural born citizen"
requirement for presidency under the Constitution. She previously wrote a
paper about the topic in 2014.In the Washington Post op-ed, McManamon argued that if one turns to
the "common law" definition of "natural born citizen," he or she will
find that 18th century English jurist William Blackstone defined the
term as a "born within the dominions of the crown of England" and that
U.S. founding father James Madison called birth place "the most certain
criterion" of allegiance.She acknowledged that other legal experts -- specifically former solicitors general Neal Katyal and Paul Clement --
have interpreted "natural born citizen" to mean anyone who was a U.S.
citizen at birth, but criticized that interpretation because it depends
on "radical 18th-century British statutes."Cruz was born to an American mother in Canada in 1970. The debate
over his eligibility for president was inflamed when Donald Trump made
it an issue on the campaign trail.

An Oklahoma bible study leader who has been charged with dozens of
sex crimes against a 14 year old girl had a history as a sex offender
before joining the church, NewsOK reports.Donnie Ray Schultz, 45, faces more than 50 charges for rape and
forcible oral sodomy, along with counts of making and possessing child
pornography. He met the victim through a Bible study class he
volunteered to teach at Calvary Christian Church in Del City, a city in
central Oklahoma. A teacher at her high school said the victim reported
she felt “brainwashed” by him.“The victim stated that over the course of 16 months, she and the
suspect have had sexual intercourse 20-30 times and had oral sex
numerous times,” Del City police detective Michael Gray wrote in a
report obtained by NewsOK.Gray wrote that Schultz, a handyman, would often take his victim to
the houses he worked at and rape her there. She also reported that
Schultz sometimes filmed the abuse.A spokesman for the church called the allegations a “complete shock,”
though NewsOK reported the church was aware of Schultz’ history as a
sex offender when he joined.“While (Schultz) led a small group Bible study on church doctrine, he
was one of seven members who took turns teaching the class. The class
was for adults only, but apparently some participated in the class
before they were eighteen,” Calgary spokesman Jason Sharp told the
paper. “(Schultz) was never in any paid, employee relationship with the
church. He (led) the discipleship class as a volunteer.”Before Schultz joined the church 19 years ago, Calgary in Del City
had been informed by his previous church that Schultz was a convicted
sex offender. But they told his current church he could be trusted and
they should accept him.Police believe there are more victims.

Saturday, January 09, 2016

GOP front runner Donald Trump praised North Korean dictator Kim
Jong-Un for maintaining an iron grasp on autocratic power by
slaughtering opponents, including his uncle.The real estate mogul-turned politician was speaking in Ottumwa, Iowa
on Saturday afternoon when he started talking about nuclear weapons.
North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a nuke this week.Trump called the North Korean supreme leader a “maniac” but then said he deserves credit for his brutality.“And you’ve got to give him credit — how many young guys — he was
like 26 or 25 when his father died — take over these tough generals and
all of a sudden, you know, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it. How
does he do that?” Trump went on, according to The Hill.“Even though it is a culture, and it’s a culture thing, he goes in,
he takes over, he’s the boss. It’s incredible,” Trump said. “He wiped
out the uncle, he wiped out this one, that one. I mean this guy doesn’t
play games.”Trump said he would make China to “handle the problem” along with Japan and South Korea.Watch Trump’s speech, as posted to YouTube, here. His comments regarding North Korea start around the 41-minute mark:

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Trump casts doubt on Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency on the
basis that he was born in Canada, echoing his earlier false claim that
Obama was born in KenyaDonald Trump cast doubt on Republican candidate Ted Cruz’s
eligibility for the presidency on Tuesday, on the basis that he may not
be a US citizen.In an interview with the Washington Post, Trump said
the fact that Cruz was born in Canada was a “very precarious one for
Republicans because he’d be running and the courts may take a long time
to make a decision. You don’t want to be running and have that kind of
thing over your head.”The Republican frontrunner went on to claim a “lot of people are
talking about … the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a
double passport.”Cruz, whose campaign declined to comment, was born in Calgary in
1971. Although his father Rafael was not an American citizen at the
time, his Delaware-born mother, Eleanor, was. Article II of the US
constitution requires that “no person except a natural born Citizen …
shall be eligible to the Office of President.” However, legal scholars have long interpreted
natural born citizen to refer to whether someone acquired their
citizenship at birth, not the geographic location where they were born.
As a result, Cruz, who was a citizen at birth, is natural born.Cruz has been reluctant to directly engage Trump during the Republican debate season, however this episode did prompt a feisty tweet from the Texas senator.He posted as his response to “@realDonaldTrump calling into question
my natural-born citizenship,” a YouTube clip of the character Fonzie
from Happy Days “jumping the shark”. This moment was seen as an
irreversible downward turn for the show’s quality and has spawned the
phrase “jumping the shark” for the moment when a once successful product
permanently goes wrong.Cruz was asked at a November campaign stop in Chariton, Iowa, about
the circumstances of his birth. Cruz said: “As a legal matter it is
plain as day that a child of a US citizen born abroad is a natural born
citizen. So will people raise this for political mischief? Sure, it’s
politics, that’s what they do, but as a legal matter … it’s quite
straightforward and I don’t believe there is any impediment whatsoever.”Trump, who was one of the most vocal “birthers” pushing the false
claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya — which incidentally would
still have made him a natural born citizen — has questioned Cruz’s
citizenship in the past. In 2013, he told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl
that the Texas senator might not be eligible to be president. “If he
was born in Canada, then perhaps not. That will be ironed out. I don’t
know the circumstances. If he says he was born in Canada, that’s his
thing.” A few Democrats have also questioned Cruz’s citizenship. Florida
congressman Alan Grayson called Cruz “a Canadian” in 2014 and said he
was not eligible to serve in the White House.